WELCOME, N.C. — With brisket, coleslaw and macaroni and cheese among the delicacies on their paper plates, about 400 Richard Childress Racing employees watched a video that hyped the upcoming NASCAR season, listened to a motivational speaker tell them why they would succeed and absorbed the words of their Hall of Fame team owner.
When Richard Childress spoke at the team’s kickoff luncheon Wednesday, he briefly recounted their accomplishments last season. Then he told the audience: “Our goal is to win that championship. … Every morning that I get out of bed, I don’t lay down another 30 minutes. I want to go out and do my best, be my best.
“To be the best, you want to race for a championship. That’s my goal. That’s why I’m still here.”
The 78-year-old Childress didn’t deliver those words with a preacher’s zeal but a cowboy’s candor. There was no need for flash. That’s not Childress’ style.
While Richard Childress Racing has six Cup championships, this season marks 30 years since its last series title. That is a gut punch to the team’s patriarch.
“The Jimmie Johnson years,” Childress told NBC Sports, “Kevin Harvick was right there. If I had one thing that I regret about Harvick is not winning the championship with him.
“I felt we were so close so many times. Jimmie, a lot of times had it wrapped up, but we were always third or fourth right in there.”
Harvick finished third to Johnson in 2010 and ’13 and was fourth to Johnson in 2006 and ’08. Harvick also placed third in 2011 when Tony Stewart won his third series title.
Since Ryan Newman finished second in the points to Harvick in 2014 — Harvick’s first year at Stewart-Haas Racing after leaving RCR — Richard Childress Racing has not had a Cup driver finish in the top 10 in points.
Harvick’s departure after the 2013 season led to a decline for Richard Childress Racing’s Cup operation. The organization won two races in the next four seasons. While Austin Dillon won the 2018 Daytona 500, RCR had only one other Cup victory from 2018-21.
There has been a change since. Richard Childress Racing won four races in 2022 and then added Kyle Busch in 2023 to replace a departing Tyler Reddick. Busch won three races last year. Those seven Cup victories in the past two years are more than RCR scored between 2014-21.
Childress’ career has been like that with ups and downs. He’s a fighter — he had to be to survive as an independent driver in NASCAR in the 1970s. His fortunes changed after signing Ricky Rudd to drive his cars in 1982. Rudd gave Childress his first two Cup wins in 1983 before Rudd swapped rides with Dale Earnhardt in 1984, bringing Earnhardt to RCR.
That began one of the sport’s most dominant unions. Earnhardt and Childress won six championships in 11 seasons. Earnhardt scored a Daytona 500 triumph in 1998 in his 20th attempt. He finished second in points in 2000, leading many to believe he was set to win a record eighth title the next season.
But Earnhardt died in a crash on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Harvick moved to Earnhardt’s team and the car number was changed from No. 3 to No. 29.
Harvick won 23 races with Childress before leaving, beginning another downtime for the organization.
After RCR signed Busch in September 2022, Dillon said he convinced Busch to join the organization by telling him that “we’re survivors and we’re fighters at RCR.”
But how long can Childress keep fighting?
“What keeps me going?” Childress says, repeating the question. “I think chasing that elusive championship. … I can leave tomorrow and it’d be over. I don’t need to do what I’m doing, but I feel responsible for every employee I have here, and I don’t want to walk away from them unless I know they’re going to be taken care of.
“And I still want to win that elusive championship.”
Dillon understands his grandfather’s drive, noting how Childress started with little to building a Cup organization that was once the sport’s best and looks to return to that level.
“I think he always questions himself, if he’s doing enough,” Dillon told NBC Sports. “ … He always feels like there’s something behind him, so he’s got to keep moving. To never let that catch up. He doesn’t want to lose what he’s built. That’s where a lot of the motivation comes. He came from nothing. He doesn’t want that for his family or anyone close to him or the employees.”
Should Childress get that next championship, Dillon knows how he’d like to see his grandfather celebrate.
“Hopefully, a cigar and a long nap,” Dillon said.
Dillon hopes a Cup championship allows his grandfather to enjoy the rewards from a lifetime of work.
“He’s starting to take more time with my grandma, which is nice,” Dillon said. “He knows that he’s got to slow down a little bit, but you ain’t going to tell him that.”
Not when there’s a championship to win and a drought to end.
2. Never giving up
Two years ago, Kaz Grala was searching for sponsorship for any NASCAR rides, telling NBC Sports in January 2022: “It’s never ideal to be trying to put your season together in January, certainly not February. You’re in big trouble if it comes down to February. That’s been the position I’ve been in the last few years. Unfortunately, I’m used to it at this point.”
Grala went to run 25 NASCAR races in 2022 — 12 Truck races, 10 Xfinity races and three Cup races.
Last year, he secured a full-time Xfinity ride with Sam Hunt Racing. Grala will run 25 Cup races this season with Rick Ware Racing and seek to make the Daytona 500 with Front Row Motorsports.
He says what got him through the lean years — he had only eight starts across NASCAR’s top three series in 2021 and seven starts in 2020 — is the same advice he gives other drivers.
“I personally think that a lot of young racers in the sport, myself included at the time, we focus on what happens on the track,” Grala said. “That is the end all be all. When you’re in Legend cars, it really feels like every race is going to make or break your career. … That’s the mindset you get in and that’s important because you have to develop that competitive nature and desire to win and, of course, being good on track. That is absolutely important.
“As soon as you start moving up through late models or once you get to ARCA, Trucks, the off-track side becomes as important, if not more important. If you don’t have the business acumen to be able to put these sponsorships together, you never get to get into the car to show people what you can do.”
Grala, who won the 2017 Daytona Truck race, said a key is understanding how to market a company’s products.
The 25-year-old has secured enough sponsorship to reach the Cup Series with a nearly full-time ride for the first time in his career.
“There have definitely been a lot of times over the last few years that I’ve wondered if I will actually keep racing or be able to keep racing,” he said. “ … It definitely has been tough, and it has not been a straightforward road for me personally, but I felt like if I just kept my head down, I kept networking with teams, I kept pushing for sponsors — and over the past few years I’ve been really fortunate to get a great handful of partners that have allowed me to race more often than I was before.”
3. Pit crew scrimmage
Pit crews from Richard Childress Racing, 23XI Racing and Legacy Motor Club competed against each other in what could be called a preseason scrimmage Tuesday.
Ray Wright, pit coach for Richard Childress Racing, said it was the first time in his 15 years that the team had done a preseason scrimmage with another organization.
Wright said the purpose was to make the scrimmage between the teams as close to a race situation.
Teams went one at a time to see who would post the best time.
Wright said the experience was good from his point of view.
“We put together a new pit crew for (Kyle Busch’s team) and I wanted to see how those guys were going to react, how they were going to work together,” he said. “Man, they stepped up and had a great day.”
Wright said that this is something he’d like to do again with other teams.
4. Building anticipation
Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen is less than a week away from beginning his first full season in NASCAR.
Van Gisbergen, the three-time Australian Supercars champion who won the inaugural Chicago Cup race last year, will compete in the ARCA and Xfinity Series next week at Daytona. The 34-year-old New Zealand native will be on the track for the first time Thursday with ARCA practice.
Since Trackhouse doesn’t compete in the Xfinity Series, van Gisbergen will run the full season there for Kaulig Racing. He’ll also run seven Cup races for Kaulig this year.
“It’s pretty exciting,” he said of the next stage in his career. “It’s good to have that uncertain feeling of not knowing what it’s going to be like. Am I going to be good? Am I going to fit in here? Being outside your comfort zone and having that anticipation and uncertainty.”
As for what he hopes to accomplish, van Gisbergen said: “I’m probably going to make some mistakes in cars, but I want to get better every week.”
5. Daytona dominance
Cup cars will be on track for the first time at Daytona on Wednesday night for qualifying.
The top two cars in qualifying will lock in a starting spot on the front row. The fastest two non-chartered cars will guarantee themselves a spot in the 40-car field. The rest of the lineup will be determined by Thursday’s qualifying races.
The last Daytona 500 pole winner to go on to win the race was Dale Jarrett in 2000.
Alex Bowman is the defending pole winner. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has started on the front row for the Daytona 500 a record six consecutive years.
Hendrick Motorsports has 16 Daytona 500 poles, most of all teams. The organization has won the pole for 40% of the Daytona 500s it has raced.
